Carl Sagan's wife wrote this about Rohith Vemula's death

Rohith Vemula wanted to be a "writer of science, like Carl Sagan", but it wasn't to be. The Dalit research scholar at the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), committed suicide following his expulsion, which was widely seen as unjust and brought about by "Hindutva" forces, chiefly the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya.

Rajeev Ramachandran had written a letter to Carl Sagan's wife Ann Druyan including the reference of Carl Sagan in Rohith's suicide note.

Here is the reply of Druyan, the co-creator of Cosmosis:

Dear Rajeev Ramachandran,

Deeply grateful to you for writing to me about Rohith Vemula, whose death and lost promise I mourn. To read his suicide note and to learn the details of his predicament is to get a vivid inkling of the actual cost of bias to our civilisation.

If we could somehow quantify the totality of lost contributions and innovations as a result of prejudice, I believe we would find it staggering. You tell me, Rajeev: Is it possible that the attention paid to Rohith’s story will lessen its chronic repetition? I am trying to find something hopeful in an otherwise heartbreaking example of needless suffering and squandered potential.

Truly,

Ann.

(This post first appeared on Rajeev Ramachandran's Facebook page.)